New Beginnings
by clp66
Summary: This is the fifth story in the Susan Chronicles series. In this story Susan continues her life working as a Lab Tech for Dr. House, but has to deal with a new side of Greg that she has never seen before. Season Seven, post Recession Proof.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story has been several weeks in the making and is the fifth in the Susan Chronicles series. The story begins after Recession Proof and yes, the timeline is messed up. Ms. Edelstein said in an interview that Bombshells happened immediately after Recession Proof, leading many to believe that the events of Bombshells and Out of the Shute were all part of an elaborate dream, but for the purposes of this story there is about a week or so in between and the events in those stories are all assumed to be part of the actual cannon and not a dream. As I was writing this story, in the week following Recession Proof, I was suddenly hit with shrapnel from Bombshells and stopped in my tracks. It took me several days to come up with how Susan was going to deal with this new situation in her life. Hopefully you'll enjoy how I've dealt with this particular situation and if you are so inclined, leave a review and let me know what you think – good or bad._

_I do not own House or any of the characters from the show; I'm just borrowing them for a little fun (and to avoid doing my chores). I do however own Susan, David and Laura._

Chapter One:

Tuesday morning, March 1st, Susan thought. February was over, winter was coming to an end and spring was well on its way – except there was still snow outside. At home, well in the Texas panhandle anyway, things would be just starting to turn green and buds would be on the trees and the first flowers would start blooming. Susan always had daffodil bulbs planted in her flower garden at home just so she could see early color and brighten her mood knowing that spring was right around the corner. She really needed to adjust her thoughts. Texas wasn't home anymore; home was here in New Jersey. This is where her family was – what was left of it. Greg was here and Laura was nearby though she wasn't much around, but she wouldn't have been anyway. Susan was closer to her university here than she would have been if she had stayed in Texas.

Susan rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Disrobing before getting into the shower, she stepped on the bathroom scale, "Aaaah!" she exclaimed. "10 pounds! I've gained 10 pounds!" Susan jumped off the scale and then stood on it again just to make sure. Sure enough she had gained 10 pounds over the winter. Not even bothering to put her robe back on, she stomped out to the kitchen and opened her freezer. She pulled out the containers of left-over chili, stew, lasagna, beans and ham and other various winter comfort foods she had saved to take in her lunches and threw them in the trash. Having completed that chore, she went back to the bathroom to take her shower and get ready for work.

The morning went by quickly with Susan performing all of the daily maintenance and QC routine for the lab. Dr. House didn't currently have a patient having just lost his latest one last week. He had taken it hard as he always did when he lost a patient – though he tried to make light of it telling Wilson that he solved the case, so he didn't really care. This time he blamed his relationship with Cuddy. He had come to the conclusion that him being happy and in love made him a worse doctor. Cuddy and Susan had both taken it upon themselves to prove to him that this wasn't the case. Dr. House had some of the most difficult patients and it stood to reason that he would lose a higher percentage of his patients than many physicians. Susan wasn't sure what it would take to make him see the truth of that, but she was determined to show him. He'd helped her work through a lot of emotional turmoil in the last month, she owed him as much. Her stomach growled, complaining from the lack of breakfast so grabbing a few dollars out of her purse, she headed down to the cafeteria to see what she could find that wasn't fattening.

Fifteen minutes later she was sitting in a booth staring at her salad plate with light dressing on the side. She hated salads, but they didn't have many calories in them so she resigned herself to eating at least one salad per day in place of a 'real meal'.

"Why are you putting _me_ on a diet?" House asked as he sat down.

Susan looked up at him, "Not interested in stealing ice burg lettuce and sliced tomatoes?" she asked.

"Not really, no," House replied.

"Don't blame you," Susan said. "I can't stand ice burg lettuce."

"Then why eat it?" House asked.

"I've gained 10 pounds in the last six months," Susan explained.

"I know," House said.

"Of course you do," Susan replied, "what gave it away – my ever expanding derriere with matching thighs?"

"Actually no, your watch is tighter on your arm and your motherly belly pooch is a little bigger. Your hips and thighs haven't really changed much. You're at higher risk for diabetes the way you gain weight in your stomach you know," House said.

"Thanks for the honest assessment," Susan said sarcastically, "and I know. That's way I'm on a diet, I refuse to allow that disease to present itself when I am capable of preventing it. My mother's family had a large preponderance of Type II diabetes, and I gain weight very easily, so I watch it very closely."

"Except for this past winter," House said.

"Winter foods are my weakness. I'll get rid of it; it's just going to take quite a bit of work on my part. I need to find an exercise program," Susan said.

"There's an opening in my Yoga class," Cuddy said having overhead them as she came to the table pushing House further in on the seat so she could sit down.

"Yoga isn't exactly what I had in mind," Susan said.

"It's great, you should try it," Cuddy said. "It's very relaxing."

"I need to burn calories, not move slowly and stretch into inhumane positions – I'm thinking team sports," Susan said, "or maybe one of those boot camp exercise classes."

"What do you play? You're too short for basketball or volleyball," House said.

"Short people can play basketball. Dr. Foreman says that Dr. Taub is pretty good. But no, I don't play either of those. Softball is my game, but I'm probably getting a little old for fast pitch. I'm going to see if I can find a slow pitch recreational league somewhere and see if they'll let an 'old lady' join the club," Susan explained. "It would be a good way to meet other people too. I'm getting tired of being alone."

"You're not alone," House said.

"No, I know I'm not – that's not what I meant," Susan said. "Having friends wasn't much of an option when Jeff was alive. My life centered on him and Laura, and that was it and my only associations with other people were through our daughter's school and church, when I could go. With Laura gone to school, my life now revolves around work and of course I attend church on Sundays, but I don't really socialize well. I just would like to find somebody with similar interests just to hang with from time to time."

"I'm going shopping with my sister this weekend if you'd like to join us," Cuddy offered.

Susan glanced over at House who was grimacing.

Susan had no desire to go shopping, but decided to go ahead and tag along in order show she was willing to make an effort. "What time and where?" she asked.

Cuddy smiled and gave her the information and then got up to go back to her office.

"Do you have any idea what you've just agreed to?" House asked.

Susan sighed, "Yeah, I think I do."

"It's your funeral," House said as he got up to leave.

Susan looked back at her plate and pushed it away. She had only managed to eat half of her salad, but couldn't stomach any more. She got up and went back to the lab; she had papers to grade anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Susan had no sooner sat down at her desk, when she received a text; a case had come in. Susan headed to the conference room. The patient was an elderly woman who resided in a senior assisted living center. She had been feeling well, when she quite suddenly started feeling nauseous. The health staff attributed it to a simple case of the flu since it had been going around the living center until she started vomiting blood. Masters started the differential by suggesting a bleeding ulcer which Foreman discounted immediately saying that the ER had already scoped her stomach and had found no evidence of an ulcer. "What's her history?" House asked.

"Unremarkable," said Chase. "She's hypertensive, but she's on a beta blocker to control that. She doesn't smoke and only occasionally drinks."

"OK, what about her family history?" House asked.

"There's nothing written here," offered Taub.

"Master's go get a better history; Foreman and Taub go check out her apartment at the living center. Chase, repeat her physical exam and Susan, I want fresh blood pulled for basic chemistries," House ordered.

Everybody got up from the table to perform their assigned tasks. Susan went down to the lab for her phlebotomy tray and then went to the patient's room where she found Chase already performing the physical exam and Masters asking the patient questions. She went over to the left side the patient and waited until she had finished answering her question to Masters, "Well, I don't really remember how my parents died. They just got old," she said as Masters made notes on the form. Susan interrupted, "I'm sorry ma'am, I know you're being poked and prodded a lot right now, but I need to take some blood from you."

With a look of trepidation, but not saying anything, the woman extended her arm out for Susan who put a tourniquet around her arm. Susan put on her gloves noting the numerous bruises on her arm where the ER nurses had tried unsuccessfully to start an IV. She started palpating her arm to find a vein. Not finding one right away, she took off her glove on her left hand, swiped the inside of the patient's elbow with more alcohol, closed her eyes and concentrated on what she was feeling. She felt the tendons, but no veins. After another moment of searching, she removed the tourniquet from the patients arm to allow the circulation to flow. "Dr. Chase, I need to check her other arm, do you think we can trade places?" Susan asked.

"Sure," he replied.

Susan moved around to the right side of the patient and repeated the process; nothing. "Mrs. Jones, has anybody ever tried to take blood from your hands?"

"They've tried, but they are never successful," she answered. "It's really hard for people to take blood from me." Susan nodded as she examined both hands; they each had very small surface veins, but nothing strong enough to handle the vacuum pull from a vacutainer tube. She wasn't even sure she would be able to pull it with a syringe without blowing the veins.

At this point Martha started checking out the patient's arms as well, "Here's a vein over here," she said.

Susan was surprised that she had missed it, but went over to where Martha was standing and felt the vein that she was pointing to. Susan shook her head, "That's not a vein; it's a tendon."

"No, I'm certain it's a vein," Martha said.

"And you're certain to be wrong, it's not a vein," Susan insisted.

Dr. Chase had already left the room to go confer with Dr. House concerning the physical exam, so Susan pulled out her phone, "Dr. House, I'm not finding a vein in either of the patient's arms or hands that I can use for the blood draw, I need permission to examine her feet and pull from there," she said. Susan hung up the phone and made a notation in the patient's chart indicating verbal permission to perform the phlebotomy on the patient's foot. Susan went to the foot of the table and put a tourniquet just above her ankle. She smiled when as she started feeling a couple of good candidates for the blood draw. Just as she was getting the needle ready to go, the patient screamed and kicked her foot upward nailing Susan squarely in her left eye, causing her glasses to fly off her face where upon the nurse running in the room to see what had caused the patient's outburst smashed them under her feet. Susan's hand flew to her left eye as she looked up, "What on earth…?" she started as she saw a very blurry Martha with a needle in her hand with a shocked look on her face. The patient was holding her arm with tears running down her face. Susan quickly removed the tourniquet off of the patient's ankle and went over to Martha. She took the needle from her hand and disposed of it, "I told you, that was not a vein," Susan said as she gently guided Martha out of the way.

The nurse came around to examine the wound and to remove the tourniquet that Martha had put on the patient's arm, "It's OK Mrs. Jones, I know it hurts, but it'll be fine." The nurse turned to glare at Martha, "Maybe next time you'll listen before you just barge in and do whatever you think!"

Susan watched the nurse as she stormed out off the office, "I wonder what's up her craw today," then asked Martha, "Are you OK?"

Martha was shaking from the whole ordeal, but nodded her head, "I guess I missed the vein."

"Oh, you didn't miss, Martha. You hit it dead on, but it wasn't a vein. It was a tendon," Susan explained. Turning to the patient Susan said, "Mrs. Jones, I still need to get the blood from you and there is a really good vein in your foot."

The patient glared at Martha, but agreed for Susan to continue. Susan put the tourniquet back on the patient's ankle and swabbed the area with alcohol, "I don't see any veins there," Martha said.

"You don't have to see them to know they are there. A good phlebotomist works by touch, not by sight. There's a good vein right here," she said as she pointed. She grabbed Martha's finger and rubbed it across the vein, "feel that?"

Martha nodded her agreement but then asked, "What about your glasses?"

"I'm nearsighted, I can see her foot just fine," Susan said as she prepared for the draw even with the watering and flashing lights in her left eye from the pain of being kicked. Two minutes later and Susan had drawn three tubes of blood and had bandaged the needle site.

"I'm sorry," Martha said as she walked along beside Susan handing her destroyed glasses to her.

"Actually, it's not me you need to apologize to," Susan said looking at her glasses thinking there was no way she would be able to repair them.

"I should have trusted you," Martha said.

"Yes, but you're only going to learn by trial and error. I'll teach you how to tell the difference later this afternoon if we get a chance. In the meantime, why don't you go talk to Mrs. Jones," Susan said.

Martha turned around to go back to the patient's room and Susan continued to the lab. When she got there, she put her glasses on her desk and headed over to the centrifuge to spin down the blood. While the blood was spinning she went over to the computer to prepare the barcode labels for the tubes. She leaned in and squinted at the screen and entered the appropriate information. When the centrifuge finished, she put the barcodes on the tubes and started the chemical analysis as Dr. House had ordered. Susan went over to her phone on her desk and called Dr. Cuddy who she knew to wear contacts, "Hey, it's me," she said.

"I'm a little busy right now Susan, what can I do for you?" Cuddy asked.

"I need to get my eyes checked; can you recommend an ophthalmologist for me please?" Susan asked. Cuddy gave her the information and she called the office to make an appointment and explained that her glasses had broken and she didn't have a backup pair, and that she was very nearsighted. They wouldn't be able to take her today, but she could come in late tomorrow afternoon. Susan agreed and then realized she would have to hitch a ride home today and then a ride to and from work until she could get a new pair of glasses made since it was illegal for her to drive without corrective lenses. About an hour later the analyzer beeped indicating it was finished analyzing the blood. Susan verified the results in the computer and headed to the conference room. As she walked down the hall, tall and short colorful blurry creatures traveled the hallway with her. Her left eye really hurt and she was still seeing flashes of light from the kick, but assumed it would go away shortly. She was lost in thought and not paying close attention to where she was as she made her way to the 4th floor and turned into the first room she saw with 5 blurry creatures sitting around a table. She walked inside and sat down before she realized that the height and shapes weren't right for her team. She apologized for going into the wrong room and left. She walked out the door and continued down the hall. Before long she realized she must have gone too far, so she turned around and started back the other direction. She made it all the way back to the elevator and turned around to start over wishing she had paid more attention to how many offices there were before Dr. House's office. She started down the hall again looking at each door as she went by, "Why do they make every door look alike?" Susan said to herself. She had just resigned herself to walking much closer to the doors so she could read the names, even though she would look like an idiot if anybody happened to be sitting at their desk, when House, who had watched Susan pass his office for the third time, got up from his desk and stepped into the hall. "Are you planning on pacing the hall all day or are you going to come in?" he asked. Susan turned toward the familiar voice and walked over his direction. As she got closer, she could see his features begin to come into focus; he was frowning.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

House didn't answer as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her closer. He felt around her eye and she winced at his touch, "It's just bruised. What happened?" he asked.

"It's my fault," Martha said coming up behind Susan and taking the lab reports from Susan's grasp. "I mistakenly stuck the patient's tendon instead of the vein in her arm and she kicked out as Martha was looking at her feet."

"And then the nurse accidently stepped on my glasses that had fallen on the floor. I've already made an appointment with Dr. Cuddy's ophthalmologist for tomorrow afternoon," Susan informed House.

He nodded and they went inside the conference room to begin the DDX. Dr. Chase held out Susan's folder toward her and Susan reached for it missing it altogether. After the second try, Dr. House impatiently grabbed the folder and her hand and put it in her hand, "Sorry, my right eye is significantly worse than my left eye, so I don't have much depth perception when I'm not wearing my glasses," she explained.

"We didn't find anything of interest at the patient's apartment," Taub offered. "There are several seniors sick right now, but according to the staff; they all have contracted the flu. I guess some kids came in last week for a program and several of them were sick and passed it on to the residents."

"The chemistries were all in the normal range, but the CBC showed an elevated platelet count," Susan said.

"How do we know you ran the right tests on the right patient?" Taub asked.

Susan looked at the Taub shaped blurry figure in the room, "I'm nearsighted, I can see close up. Besides, her specimen was the only one I was running at the time. Trust me. The results are hers."

"She's not running a fever. Her blood pressure and pulse are fine and there was nothing remarkable on the physical examination. I don't think this is any sort of infection," Chase added.

House ordered Susan to run an Iron study on the blood she had just collected and the team to perform an Esophagogastroduodenoscopy for a more thorough look than what the ER had previously performed. Susan let the team head out first before she started to move, "You think you can find your way to the lab with no problem?" House teased.

"I'll be fine. Thank you," Susan said as she got up from the table tripping over the trash can as she made her way to the door. House held back a grin as he helped her off the floor and put the trashcan back in place. "Thanks," Susan mumbled embarrassed and hurriedly left the room. On the way back to the elevator, Susan made sure to count the number of doors between House's office and the elevator. She was so embarrassed and she knew Greg would make full use of her handicap over the next couple of days until she could get a new pair of glasses.

Two hours later Susan had finished the iron study and rather than take the results to the team, she sent the results to them electronically. It was getting late and she decided to shut things down in the lab and just as she was finishing, she heard Dr. House come in the lab behind her, "Hey," he said as she turned around.

Susan smiled at him, "What's up?" she asked.

"It's time to go home," he said picking up her jacket and holding it out for her.

As Susan reached for her jacket, he pulled back slightly so that she just missed grabbing it. She took a step forward and reached for it again as House pulled back again, "Greg!" she said exasperatedly. He chuckled and helped her put it on. Susan grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder, "I'm ready." As much as she was annoyed by his teasing, it also pleased her that he had thought to come get her and take her home without her having to ask.

"How are you planning on getting to work tomorrow?" he asked as they walked to his parking space him grabbing her elbow as they stepped down the curb. "If you think I'm coming in that early, you're nuts."

"I have class tomorrow morning, so I can't be late. I thought I might give Dr. James a call and see if he wouldn't mind dropping by to pick me up," Susan replied.

House nodded and smiled, "Good excuse anyway," he said as he opened the passenger door for her.

"That's what I thought too," Susan said returning his grin.

"I'm sorry Susan, I can't. I have a parent-teacher conference at my son's school. Otherwise I'd be happy to pick you up," David said.

"OK, not a problem. I'll talk to you later," she replied and then hung up the phone. Susan thought about her options to herself, there weren't many available to her so she decided to call a cab. She made the phone call and arranged for the cab to pick her up at 7am the next morning. Susan's stomach growled in hunger, so she made her way to the kitchen to see what there was. She hadn't been able to go to the grocery store and the refrigerator was empty of anything edible except condiments and pickles. She opened the freezer which was also barren since she had dumped out all of her left-over's in her fit this morning. She was beginning to regret that decision. She went over to the cabinet where she stored her bread and found a couple slices left. She pulled that out and the jar of peanut butter from the pantry and made herself a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. Not great, but better than nothing. When she finished the sandwich, she was still hungry, but she could live with it. She wasn't going to lose weight by ingesting more food. Susan rubbed her temples. She had a headache which made sense since she'd been straining to see the majority of the day. She started to watch television, but turned it off fairly quickly because it was annoying to try to watch. Instead she turned put a CD in the player and listened to some music while she picked up a book she had been reading. Thank goodness there wasn't anything wrong with her close up vision, but she had read less than a page when she decided, she was just too tired to read and got ready for bed instead.

MDMDMDMDMD

"She can't see," House said.

"What do you mean she can't see," Cuddy asked.

"I mean exactly what I said, she _can't_ see," House reiterated. "The woman's blind as a bat without her glasses."

"Well, we knew her eyes were bad. Her lenses are fairly thick, especially the right one." Cuddy said.

"Yeah, but not thick enough for as hard a time as she is having," House said. "I think when the patient kicked her in the left eye; she must have done some damage. She said that her right eye was significantly worse than her left which is why she doesn't have good depth perception when she doesn't have her glasses. She should be seeing well enough with her left eye to get around, but she's tripping over things as if there is _no_ depth perception. I'm wondering if she is even seeing anything out of her left eye at all."

"Well, you did say she has an appointment tomorrow afternoon with my ophthalmologist. I'm sure he'll figure it out," Cuddy assured. "He's good and very thorough."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

The next morning Susan stepped out of her apartment and grabbed the side rail to the steps before venturing down. The cab was waiting on the street and when she got in she told the driver her destination. He dropped her off at the door of PPTH and Susan stepped out after paying the fee. When Susan walked in her lab, she went to her desk and started to sit down when she saw something leaning against her desk. It was a blind man's cane. "Jerk," she said out loud as she chuckled to herself. He was really having a good time with this; she'd have to find a creative comeback. She was slightly tempted to actually use the cane to help with the depth perception issue she was having, but decided that would be rather silly and would look ridiculous. Susan gathered the things she needed and headed off to class.

Susan entered the classroom, "Good Morning," she said as she walked in. Trying to be as nonchalant as possible she grabbed the side rail on the steps that led up to the stage at the front of the class, "You'll be happy to know that we are officially caught up to where you should have been when I took over the class, unfortunately however – we're still behind where we need to be and so we can't slow down." Susan went to the board and started writing out the assigned homework problems for the current chapter. "Now if everybody will turn to chapter seven we are going to begin discussing oxidation-reduction reactions." Susan waited for everybody to get to the right page in the text before she began her lecture. "Oxidation is the loss of electrons…."

Dr. James walked up to the side door of the classroom. He wanted to talk to her to apologize about not being able to pick her up this morning, but had obviously gotten there too late. He decided to watch Susan lecture to her students for a few moments. He enjoyed watching her teach because she was so animated. She clearly enjoyed teaching and she had a way of bringing the students into her lectures so that there was a lot of active participation. There was something different about her this morning though; she wasn't moving around quite as much as normal. He wondered about that when he noticed that several students in the back of the class had their hands raised and Susan seemed to be ignoring them, also out of the ordinary. Finally one of them spoke up, "Ms. Watkins, I'm not sure what you mean by loss of electrons." David heard her answer but unlike normal, she didn't leave the stage and walk toward the student. David realized at that point that Susan wasn't wearing her glasses. She hadn't said why she needed a ride when she called last evening, she must have lost or broken her glasses and didn't feel safe to drive. David noticed a change in Susan's posture as she thought of another way to answer the student's question and without thinking she started walking away from the board toward the student. David's eyes went wide when he realized that she was going to miss the steps completely and fall off the stage. He quickly entered the room, but not before Susan had stepped out where there was no floor beneath her and she fell off the stage.

"Crap!" she said when she landed on the floor.

David and several students rushed to her side, "Are you OK?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Susan said rather annoyed with herself. She got up and went over to the stage and pulled herself up to sit on it with her legs dangling in front of her. "If everybody will go back to their seats, we'll continue."

David looked at her and said, "Are you sure?"

"Really, I'm fine," she answered. She turned toward the class, "I'm sorry for the interruption. My glasses were broken in a patient room yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping that by this weekend I can get another pair, but in the meantime I can't see well into the distance and my depth perception is minimal." Susan thought for a minute and then smiled, "Can anybody tell me why my depth perception is limited?"

David chuckled and shook his head; leave it to Susan to make a teaching opportunity out of a mishap. He walked out of the classroom as it seemed that she was fine. He went back to his office to start his day and wondered if she might need a ride this afternoon. He decided he would call her after class.

Class ended and instead of going back to the lab, Susan went to the clinic. She found an empty exam room and started rummaging through the cabinets and drawers, "What are you looking for?" the duty nurse asked.

"A band-aid and antiseptic," Susan answered as she pointed to her knee.

The nurse looked down and saw her trousers had a rip at the knee and blood had seeped along the edges of the tear. She nodded and went to the first aid drawer and pulled out the items Susan needed. Susan hopped up on the exam table and pulled her pants up over her knee. The nurse cleaned the wound and placed the band-aid over the top, "Good as new," she said. Susan thanked her, grabbed her stuff and headed to the conference room where she was sure to find the team discussing the current case since it was past time for Dr. House to make his entrance into work.

"Don't you think that would have been important to mention before now?" House complained. "We wouldn't have wasted time scoping the old lady if I'd known she had an enlarged spleen!"

"I didn't intend to leave it out of the chart, it was a mistake," Chase argued

"It wasn't a total waste of time House," Foreman offered. "We saw esophageal varices with a blood clot, so we did an ultrasound and found portal venous hypertension."

"Someone care to put that in English for the uninformed?" Susan asked.

"Her submucosal veins in her esophagus are dilated and they've been bleeding since she has a clot," Martha told Susan.

"So why would that prompt you to ultrasound the liver?" Susan asked.

House didn't respond outwardly, but inside he smiled. She asked good questions and was always working to increase her knowledge. He was pleased that she realized the portal vein was part of the liver especially since it wasn't even really a vein. "Because it's not uncommon for this kind of bleeding to occur as a result of cirrhosis and portal hypertension is indicative of that," he said.

"But the liver enzymes were normal," Susan said.

"Yes, and because of that the cause is most likely essential thromobocythemia. Treat the patient with hyroxyurea and aspirin," House ordered. The team filed out of the room to start treatment. "When is your eye exam?" he asked.

"In a half hour," Susan answered.

"Let me know what he says." House said.

"Says about what? I'm just getting my prescription updated so I can get a new pair of glasses. My last eye exam was over two years ago," she explained.

House didn't say anymore as he got up and went into his office.

MDMDMDMDMD

Dr. Williams walked in the examination room and looked at Susan, "Wow, that's quite a shiner," he said.

"Patient kicked me when I was trying to collect a blood specimen," Susan answered as she handed the doctor her broken glasses.

"Guess that'll teach you to go poking people with needles," the doctor teased as he sat down to examine her left eye. After looking in her eye he said, "I'm going to dilate your eyes so I can get a better look." He put drops in her eyes and then stepped out of the office while he waited for her eyes to dilate taking her glasses with him to read the prescription from what was left of the lenses. Twenty minutes later, he returned and turned out the room lights. He examined her eye closely with his optic scope. He pulled away, "Read as much as you can on the chart."

Susan laughed, "E" she said.

"That's it?" he asked.

"Mmm hmm, I can see that there are characters below the E, but I can't make anything out," she said.

The doctor covered her left eye, "Can you still read the E?"

"Yes"

The doctor covered her right eye, "How about now?"

Susan became very serious and tears started forming, "Susan?"

"I'm blind," she said softly.

"Yes, your retina has detached," the doctor explained.

The tears started in earnest. "Susan, we can repair this, but we have to act fast. We like to repair this type of damage within 24 hours of the injury. When did this happen?"

"Yesterday afternoon. Why couldn't I tell?" Susan asked.

"I'm not sure really except that your vision in your right eye is so poor that you were concentrating on seeing what you could instead of focusing on what you couldn't see," he theorized.

"I'm going to get things set up for emergency surgery. My assistant will be in here directly with a valium that you need to take before the surgery. It's laser surgery, so we can do it right here. As soon as we are ready, somebody will be in to get you," he said and left Susan in the room alone.

Susan pulled out her phone and listened for a few moments until she heard him answer, "Greg,….."

House listened quietly and then closed his phone. Noting the expression on his face, Wilson asked, "What's wrong?"

"Retina detachment," House answered as he got up and left Wilson's office.

A few moments later, the exam room door opened; it was House. "Hey," he said as he pulled up a chair next to Susan. "You alright?"

Susan swallowed hard and nodded, "They're prepping the room for emergency surgery. Dr. Williams says that it can be repaired if we act quickly."

"He's right," House acknowledged. "Cuddy says he's very good and thorough, so try not to worry."

The exam room door opened and the assistant walked in with a valium and a drink cup to hand to Susan. "You need to take this so that you will be completely relaxed during the surgery. You will be awake the entire time. The doctor is going to numb your eye so you won't move it during the surgery."

Susan put the pill in her mouth and brought up the cup to wash it down with the water. House saw Susan's hands tremble although she was doing a good job trying to hide her fear otherwise. "Would it be OK if Dr. House stayed with me through the surgery?" Susan asked after she had finished taking the medication.

"Why?" the assistant asked as she glanced over to Dr. House. "He doesn't usually consult on ophthalmologic cases."

"No, but I would feel better if he were there," Susan said.

The assistant said she would ask and left the two alone. "Why do you want me there? This isn't a life or death situation." House asked.

"I'm terrified and I have to be awake for this entire thing. I've never been any good even putting drops in my eye, much less something this intense," Susan explained.

The assistant returned and told them that Dr. Williams had agreed that House could stay. She led them both out of the room and showed House where to scrub up and took Susan to the operating room. Susan was starting to feel the effects of the valium as she climbed on the table and lay back. The nurses prepared her face and area surrounding the eye for surgery. Dr. Williams soon came into the room with Dr. House alongside. He directed House to a chair next to the table and then spoke, "Susan, I'm going to repair your retina, but while we're here it would be a good opportunity to correct your vision in this eye as well."

Susan was pretty out of it with the valium hitting her fairly strong at this point and was unable to formulate an answer. House nodded to the doctor, "Go ahead."

"Are you her medical proxy?" the doctor asked.

"I'm her brother," House said.

"Oh, I didn't know that. Guess that shows how far outside of the PPTH gossip chain I am," he said. "OK Susan, we're getting started now."

Susan didn't say anything, but opened her right hand and turned it face up. Uncharacteristically, House took her hand and held it through the entire procedure.

At the end of the procedure, Dr. Williams put a bandage over Susan's left eye. "I want that eye to completely relax for the rest of the week. So leave the bandage in place and come in on Monday for a follow-up. In the meantime, here," he said as he handed a pair of glasses to Susan that had an appropriate lens for the right eye. "We didn't get as far in the eye exam as we needed to for an exact correction, but I read your prescription off of the old glasses you gave me and this lens is pretty close. You'll be able to see fairly clearly, although with the left eye out of commission for the moment, you won't have any depth perception. So, if you need to go anywhere, get someone else to drive you."

"She's taking off the rest of the week," House said.

"What about my class, and Mrs. Jones?" Susan asked, the effects of the valium starting to wear off so she was starting to think clearly.

"Who?" House asked.

"Our patient," Susan said, a little exasperated with him. He never learned the patient's names.

"Oh, 'old lady', she's stable. She's not out of the woods yet, but she is improving. If we need anymore lab work, I'll send Taub down to do it. I'll get one of my lackeys to cover your class Friday," House said.

"That sounds like a good idea," Dr. Williams said.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

The phone went to voice mail again. David had tried to call Susan three times since class ended and had gotten voice mail every time. Maybe she just didn't want to talk to him. She did seem a bit embarrassed when she fell off the lecture stage. He decided he would go to her lab and catch her there.

He walked in her lab, it was quiet. Her jacket was still over the back of her chair, so she hadn't left yet. He saw the blind man's cane propped up to the desk and wondered what that was all about – surely it was a joke. He saw her message light flashing on her phone, so she hadn't checked her messages which made him feel a little better, so he grabbed a post-it and left her a note to call if she needed a ride.

MDMDMDMDMD

Chase walked in the lab and made sure everything was shut down for the night. He went over to Susan's desk grabbed her jacket and unlocked her desk drawer to get her purse with the keys House had given him. He saw the blind man's cane propped against the desk, picked it up and shook his head; it was amazing watching those two harass each other. He wished he'd been closer to his half-siblings, it might have been fun. Just as he was setting it back against the desk, he noticed the note. _Well_, he thought to himself, _she wouldn't need a ride tonight anyway_. He left it there and headed out.

MDMDMDMDMDMD

House pulled into Susan's apartment, got out and helped her out of the car. She was still a little loopy from the medication, but she was fine to manage on her own tonight. He wanted to make sure she had something on her stomach before she settled in for the night. When they went inside he went straight to the kitchen, "You don't have any food," he said.

"I didn't have time to go by the grocery store to stock back up and then when my glasses broke, I couldn't drive. Don't worry, I'll figure out something, go on home," Susan said.

"Nope – not tonight. I'm calling a pizza, what do you like?" he asked.

"About anything – except pineapple. I can't for the life of me figure out why people want to put fruit on their pizza," she said.

House ordered a large supreme and a large pepperoni, "I can't eat that much pizza," Susan said.

"Who said it was all for you?" he replied. He sat down on the couch and turned on the TV and started flipping channels. "There's nothing on," he said. "Why don't you have cable?"

"It's too expensive and there would still be nothing on. I have a Netflix account, hit the menu button, you'll see several options come up and Netflix is at the bottom. Find something you like since you're going to stay. I'm likely to fall asleep anyway," she said.

House found a good movie and had just started to settle in when the doorbell rang. Susan started to get up, but House told her to stay put. He paid for the pizza and then went to the kitchen to get a couple plates and drinks.

"Thanks for everything," Susan said. "I haven't eaten all day, I'm starving." She reached for one slice each of both pizzas. "I can't believe I completely lost the vision in my left eye and I couldn't tell."

"You know I approved Dr. Williams to correct your vision in your left eye since you were going through a procedure anyway," House said.

"I have a vague recollection of something like that. It's OK, I've never gotten the surgery because I was always afraid something would screw up and I'd end up blind. But since I was already blind in that eye, it wouldn't matter anyway." Susan said. "I'm going to look pretty weird though – with only one lens. I'll have to get one of those monocles that old men used to wear in the old days."

House looked at her, "You are kidding right? You could just have him fix the right eye too."

"Of course I'm kidding," she said. "If all goes well, then I'll have him fix my right eye if it's possible. If it doesn't go well, then I'll probably just wear lopsided glasses because I'm not going to risk being blind in both eyes. I don't want to have to really start using that beautiful red and white cane you put in my office."

House's phone rang, it was Foreman, "Great, have the nurses monitor her and go home." He hung up.

"Mrs. Jones is doing well?" Susan asked

"Who?" House asked.

"Your patient! You imbecile," Susan said and then realized House was teasing her.

"Yes, she is improving," he answered with a smirk and then turned back toward the movie.

"Good." Susan paused. "At the risk of inflating your already inflated ego, you realize you solved that case inside of two days."

House nodded, "Got lucky."

"No, you didn't get lucky. You solved it and in plenty of time. You're not losing your mojo just because you're happy. You don't have to be miserable to be good at what you do," Susan said.

"Cuddy talked to you," House said.

"She might have said something," she replied. "She loves you and she's worried about you."

"She doesn't have to worry about me. I just need her to love me," House said.

Susan put her plate on the coffee table, "The two go hand in hand."

"Would you shut up and let me watch the movie?" House said.

Susan chucked and leaned over with her feet curled beneath her and rested her head on the arm of the couch. After a few moments Susan said sleepily, "We should probably make that official."

"Make what official?" he asked.

"You as my medical proxy," Susan answered with a yawn. "We're family." It wasn't long before House heard her breathing become steady and regular. He finished the movie and then got up and went to her room to get a pillow and a blanket. He stretched her legs out on the couch, put the pillow under her head and placed the blanket over her. Having completed that, he turned off the television and put the leftover pizza away and the dishes in the sink, but he made no move to actually wash them. She could do that tomorrow. He started to leave, but on his way to the door he stopped at the couch and tenderly brushed her hair away from her face, "Goodnight Sis."

MDMDMDMD

It was late and Cuddy was already in bed when House crept in and lay beside her. Cuddy stirred and opened her eyes, "How's Susan?" she asked groggily.

"She's fine. She crashed out not too long after she ate but I stayed for a while afterwards just to make sure," he said.

"You're a good brother," she said as she closed her eyes submitting to the sleep that was taking back over.

House wrapped his arm around Cuddy and held her close. As he drifted off to sleep his mind couldn't help but ask himself what he possibly could have done to deserve the love of the two very special women in his life.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

The doorbell rang. Susan went to the door to answer it and found Martha standing on the stoop "Hi," she said.

Susan invited her in and Martha explained that Dr. House had assigned her to cover Susan's class on Friday so she needed to see what Susan had planned for lecture. Susan led her over to her desk and pulled her notes out of her backpack. An hour later and Martha was fully versed on what Susan had planned on covering and headed out with Susan's backpack.

The phone rang, "Grand Central," Susan answered.

There was a pause, "Uhh," the voice said.

"That was a joke," Susan said. "It's rather busy around here this morning."

"Oh, well this is David," the voice replied. "I guess you didn't need a ride last night."

"No, Dr. House brought me home – I'm sorry I didn't realize I had asked for a ride home." Susan said a bit confused.

"I had left several messages on your voice mail and a note on your desk, but you didn't call me back," David said.

"Oh, I understand. Well, actually I never went back to the lab after class. I ended up having emergency eye surgery to repair a detached retina," she explained. "Turns out I was completely blind in my left eye and didn't know it."

There was a hesitation on the line, "Well, I'm glad everything is OK now. Will you need a ride into work tomorrow?" he asked.

"No, Dr. House has insisted that I stay home the rest of this week. But don't worry, I have my class covered, so the students won't miss a beat," Susan said.

More hesitation and then, "Would you be interested in going out on Saturday?" David asked.

_Great_, Susan thought to herself. She really wanted to go out with him, but she'd already promised Cuddy she'd spend the day with her. "I sorry, I can't," Susan said. "Maybe another time?"

"Sure," he said followed by another awkward silence. "Well, I'll let you go. See you around."

David hung up the phone. This just wasn't working out. Every time he tried to make connections with Susan, something got in the way. He wondered if she was really doing anything Saturday or if she was just too polite to tell him to bug off. He decided to bug off and save himself the embarrassment.

Susan pulled up her laptop and started looking online for the local recreational softball leagues. She still wanted to get involved in some activity both for the exercise and comradery. She found two adult leagues, a men's softball league and a co-ed league. _Well, that sucks_, she thought. She had really been hoping to find a women's league. Well, co-ed was better than nothing. She looked at the list of team rosters and noted that there were two teams that were looking for another female player. She filled out the online form putting in her pertinent information and listed her fielding experience.

Susan got up and went to the refrigerator. There was one slice of pizza left – she was getting tired of pizza, but it was all she had. She really needed to go to the grocery store, but she still couldn't drive. She picked up the phone, "Lisa Cuddy," the voice said.

"Hey," Susan said. "Would you happen to have time after work today to take me to the grocery store? I'm out of everything and I can't drive until after I see Dr. Williams on Monday."

"Well, not really to be honest," Cuddy said. "I'm up here most of the evening. House will be alone with Rachel, why don't I have him pick you up and you three can either go out or fix something at the house. After we go shopping with my sister Saturday, we'll swing by the grocery store. Will that work?"

"That'd be great. Thanks," Susan said.

Three hours later Susan's cell phone rang, "I'm outside," House said.

Susan grabbed her purse and left her apartment, careful to use the hand rail as she descended the steps. As she approached the car, she saw Rachel strapped in her booster seat in the back. "Hello Miss Rachel," she said as she got in the passenger side.

"Hi Aunt Susan," Rachel replied. "You going t'eat wiff us."

"Yes ma'am," Susan said. "Thanks," she said turning to face House who was pulling back out into the street.

"Don't get excited, we're just going to McDonald's. Rachel likes to play in that thing – and with you around, I've got somebody small enough that can go in after her when she won't come out," House said.

"Well, this works out well for both of us then," Susan said.

They pulled into the restaurant parking lot. House reached over the back seat to release Rachel from her booster chair. Rachel was bouncing up and down with excitement, "Calm down, would you?" House said to Rachel as he struggled with the seat belt.

"I wanna go play, I wanna go play," she said as she continued to jump.

"After you eat," House told her. He got out of the car and opened the back door for Rachel to climb out. She bounced out of the car and started running across the parking lot. Suddenly there was a loud whistle and Rachel stopped in her tracks. House caught up to her and grabbed her hand, "Don't run, you know better than that," he said.

"That was impressive," Susan said.

"What was?" House asked.

"Her stopping like that when you whistled," she answered.

"Oh, well it's our signal for her to stop. I can't chase after her and she tends to get so excited, she just takes off. She doesn't always stop, but for the most part she does. She's had to learn a few lessons the hard way, but she's getting there." House explained.

"The hard way?" Susan asked. "Do you spank her?"

"No. I can't," House said. "Not with my background, I'm afraid of what might happen given how my dad doled out the punishment. My size and voice work to my advantage with her and we've had a few serious discussions and time-outs." House paused for a moment and then chuckled a little, "She actually obeys me better than Cuddy most of the time," he added.

"That's understandable and is normal for mother-daughter situations," Susan said. "Laura always responded better to Jeff than me when she was little. And before you say it," she started when she saw the look on House's face, "the way Jeff treated her was completely different than the way he treated me. He was an excellent father. She doesn't know what happened between me and her father."

"She knows more than you think," House said. "She's a sharp kid. You may have tried to hide things from her, but she was perceptive enough to know at least some of what was going on."

They went inside and placed their order. Rachel got a happy meal with apples sticks and milk instead of fries and a soft drink. Susan ordered two salads and a diet coke, "One for later." She explained. House loaded himself up with two Big Macs, a large fry and large soft drink. "Hmm," Susan said, "Trying to double your cholesterol level in one meal?"

"Yeah, well – I don't get this kind of thing often anymore.

Rachel continued to bounce, but she stayed by House's side, "Come on, let's eat," she implored the adults. They found a seat and House doled out the meal. Rachel opened her happy meal box and took out her hamburger. She took one bite and then said, "I'm done. I'm going to play," and she started to get up.

House grabbed her hand, "No, you're going to sit there and eat your dinner until I tell you you're done," House said sternly.

Rachel sighed and picked up her hamburger again while House pulled out the apple sticks and milk for her. House started to eat his own meal and looked over at Rachel who was trying to stuff her entire hamburger in her mouth at once. He put his food down and reached over to pull the mass of food out of Rachel's mouth. "You're going to choke. Take one bite at a time and chew," he admonished. He wiped his hands on his napkin and picked his hamburger back up. Sure enough Rachel started coughing from trying to swallow so fast. House was quick and got the food out of her mouth before she really started choke. "What did I tell you about slowing down? Take small bites and chew 10 times before you swallow – do you hear what I'm telling you?"

Rachel nodded and took smaller bites, noticeably chewing each bite 10 times before she swallowed.

Susan was doing her best to keep her face straight, without much success.

"What?" House said.

"Nothing," Susan choked out and she looked down to pay attention to her own meal. Finally Rachel had eaten enough to satisfy House and he let her go play. As soon as she left the table, Susan lost it and started laughing. She laughed until her only visible eye started watering, "Oh, that was great." she said as she started calming down.

House just stared at her. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," House said. "It's not _that_ funny."

"Oh, yes it is. All the more so because I've been there," she said. "You're doing well with her."

"She wears me out," House admitted.

"Yes, and it'll get worse before it gets better, but it will get better," Susan said. "She's not even three yet, by the time she starts first grade she'll be a bit more subdued."

"Only a bit?" asked House.

"A lot; she'll still have her crazy moments, but they'll get further and further apart as she gets out of the preschool age," Susan explained as she reached over to steal a couple of fries.

"Hey! You're supposed to be on a diet, '_miss, I've gained 10 pounds!'_" he said mocking her.

"I am." Susan said. "A couple of fries aren't going to hurt me any. And, how can you eat that much food and not gain weight?"

"That's one thing your dad blessed me with genetically. A fast metabolism and naturally low cholesterol levels," he said.

"I wish I'd inherited that trait from him," Susan said. "All I got was his eye color and skin tone. My vision, my height and my weight all came from my mom's side."

Finally it was time to leave. House and Susan gathered Rachel from the playroom and left the restaurant. House dropped Susan off at her apartment. She went inside and put her extra salad in the refrigerator for the next day. She thought about tomorrow and hoped that Martha wouldn't have any issues in class. She wasn't worried about her not knowing the material – the girl was a genius, but she wasn't real strong in 'dealing with people' department. Susan thought this would probably be a good experience for her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six:

The rest of the week went by quickly. Susan actually enjoyed shopping with Cuddy and her sister on Saturday. It wasn't like any experience Susan had ever had shopping. Instead of walking the mall and going from store to store, they went to a specialty boutique where the sales woman actually brought clothes to the women to try on. Of course she didn't purchase anything for herself, the prices being well beyond what she could afford, especially while trying to put her daughter through school, but she enjoyed the process. It was interesting watching the differences in wardrobe that the two sisters chose to wear. Saturday evening and Sunday were quiet. Susan spent all of Sunday cooking healthy meals for her lunches that week with the groceries she had gotten Saturday afternoon with Cuddy, and getting caught up cleaning around the apartment.

A horn sounded outside and Susan stepped out of her apartment and into House's car. "Good Morning," she said. House nodded without saying anything. "Everything OK?" Susan asked.

"Everything's fine," he said. Susan could tell that he was worried about something, but she decided to drop it for the time being. He would tell her if and when he was ready. "You won't need a ride home this afternoon," he said.

"No, I shouldn't. My car should still be at the hospital and I get this patch off this morning," she confirmed. House nodded and they rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence.

Susan's appointment was first thing, so instead of heading to the lab she went straight to Dr. Williams' office. Dr. Williams walked in the exam room, "Susan, how are you?"

"I'm fine, but I'm looking forward to getting this patch off so I can start driving again," Susan admitted.

"Well, let's get to it then," Dr. Williams said as he turned out the lights in the exam room. Susan removed her glasses and Dr. Williams told her to close her eyes. He removed the patch and then asked Susan to open her eyes. Susan blinked her eyes and then focused on Dr. Williams. He examined her eye and leaned back looking pleased with himself. "Well, the retina looks good, let's turn up the lights and see what you can see." Susan was thrilled to learn that not only could she see out of her left eye, she could see better than she had since she was very young. After the exam Dr. Williams told her that her eye was actually a little overcorrected, so she was slightly far sighted in that eye, but it didn't require any further correction, though she would find that reading close up out of that eye would be more difficult. It was actually remarkable that he was able to correct the vision so closely since he'd been unable to do a proper exam on that eye before the surgery.

"How long do you usually wait before you correct the vision in the second eye? I think I'd really to consider that," Susan asked.

"Let's give it a month for another follow-up and we'll talk about it then," he said.

Susan left the ophthalmologist's office and headed to the lab. She had about 30 minutes to get to class. Martha had stopped by her apartment Friday evening to go over what she had covered with the class in Susan's absence. Once in the lab she dropped off her things and headed to class. "Good morning," she said as she entered the classroom.

"How's your eye?" asked one of the students.

"Much better thank you," she answered. "I can see out of it quite well and I think I'm going to have the vision corrected in my right eye as soon as my ophthalmologist agrees. I've worn glasses since I was 10 years old and it's nice to be able to see clearly without them. Now if everybody will turn to 7.6 in the text…"

Susan spent the first 15 minutes going over the material that Martha had covered the Friday before. The students were clearly familiar and seemed to have a good grasp of the concepts, so she moved on to the next section. By the end of class, she had finished lecturing over the material and reminded the students of their upcoming exam on Friday. As she was packing her things, one of her students stopped her and asked for some extra help. Since there wasn't a class following hers in the room, she stayed until the student was comfortable working the problems on his own then she headed back to the lab. On her desk was a copy of the current patient file. House had taken on a teenager over the weekend with a multitude of symptoms, but appeared to be heading toward kidney failure. She reviewed the lab work performed by the main laboratory for the patient; there hadn't been much. One lead level which had come back normal and a microbiological specimen which wasn't yet complete, but Dr. House had already started treatment for a staph infection. Susan was just about to call the main lab to get the remains of the blood specimen so she would have it if he ordered any further testing when Martha walked in the lab, "Susan, I need your help."

"What's up?" she asked.

"I need help finding a kidney biopsy," Martha explained.

"For the patient?" Susan asked looking at the file again. "There isn't anything in here indicating a kidney biopsy."

"No, it's for Dr. Cuddy," Martha said. "She's aliased her specimen and back dated it so House wouldn't know which biopsy was hers so he couldn't rush the results. He wants me to find it and get him the results."

Wheels started turning in Susan's head, "That explains why he was so despondent this morning," she said. "Come on, we'll start in pathology and then head over to histology." As Martha and Susan headed to pathology Susan asked, "Do we have any idea of how far she back dated the biopsy?"

"No, I don't know how far we'll have to look," Martha said.

"Well, I can guarantee you that we won't have to look before the first of the year because histology closes out and archives all the specimens at the end of each year. She may have backdated the specimen, but she can't back the specimen accession number, the system won't allow it. So, we need to look for an accession number that is out of place with what was assigned for those dates," Susan said.

"I don't follow," Martha said.

"The specimen date is back-dated, but the accession number will be current – it'll be a confirmation that we have the right specimen," Susan explained.

They walked into pathology and Susan went to the computer to perform an archival search for kidney biopsies from 01/01/2011 through today. "The system shows 14 kidney biopsies," Susan said. She printed out the search report to get all the pertinent information. Then performed another search for all histology specimens processed the day yesterday and today in order to see what accession numbers the department was currently assigning and to find any skipped numbers. "There are three skipped numbers in the last two days," Susan said.

"Why would they skip them?" Martha asked.

"Hard to say really – there are several things that can happen during the process that would require a specimen to be re-assigned. Some of them are IT related, others are process related. The point is, once a number has been used once, it can't be used again – so Dr. Cuddy's specimen is one of these three accession numbers.

Martha went to another workstation and started searching the database for each of the 14 kidney biopsy possibilities. As Martha determined the patient id number for each accession, Susan used that information to pull up the accompanying chemistry data. "There's a PSA value on that one, so it's male," Susan said. Martha crossed it off the list and called out the next patient ID. "This person is diabetic," Susan said eliminating it from the list. The two went through this procedure until they had eliminated all but one specimen.

"This has to be it," Martha said.

"And now we'll confirm, what's the accession number?" Susan asked.

"11-026738H," Martha said.

"And that number is missing from yesterday's list," Susan said fingering where the accession number should have been listed. "Print out the pathology report and let's go to the slide room and pull the slides."

Martha and Susan went to the slide room where a tech was stationed at the slide archival system. "We need the slides from this specimen," Susan said.

The tech looked at the number, "Oh, I just filed those," she said as she walked over to the cabinet. She pulled out the slide box and found the slides associated with the case. "Bring them back when you're done, so I can re-file them."

"Will do, thanks," Susan said as she and Martha headed out the door.

Back in her lab, Susan put the first slide on the scope and looked at the tissue. She looked up and down through the tissue, removed the slide and put on the second slide. She examined that slide as thoroughly, "I'm not seeing anything that looks different than normal kidney tissue," she said while looking through the scope. She turned to Martha, "If Dr. Cuddy has a tumor or some other kind of mass; they missed it on the biopsy. What does the path report say?"

"Inconclusive," Martha answered.

"You better go tell Dr. House," Susan said.

Martha left the lab to find Dr. House and Susan went to her desk and sat down. This wasn't good, she knew Greg well enough at this point to know that he didn't handle bad news well. This result wasn't exactly bad news, it was no news. She wasn't sure what was worse.

MDMDMDMDMD

Susan left the lab and headed toward Dr. Cuddy's office. "I'm sorry Susan, but Dr. Cuddy isn't in her office."

"Where is she?" Susan asked.

"I can't say," the admin said.

Susan turned to leave and as she turned to walk through the clinic she saw Dr. Wilson coming out of an exam room. "I didn't think you were scheduled for clinic duty today," she said.

"I'm not, I'm trying to talk some sense into your brother," Wilson said.

"He's in there?" Susan asked as she pointed to the room. Wilson nodded and left the clinic.

Susan opened the door and found Martha finishing her conversation with Dr. House overhearing the last part of the conversation, "They're doing scans now so the surgeon has a better idea of what he's dealing with," she was saying.

Martha left the room and Susan walked in, "Hey," she said.

House asked, "Are you here to tell me I need to go to her too?" he asked.

"Is that something I really need to say?" Susan asked. "I think you know the answer to that question."

House nodded, got up off the exam table and left the room. Susan followed behind, but instead of making his way to radiology, he turned and made his way to the exit. Susan looked after him as he started toward the door, "Greg? Where are you going?" Susan asked. House didn't reply as he walked out of the hospital. Susan didn't know what to think as she continued to stare the direction he had gone long after he had left her view. Finally, she turned away from the exit and headed toward radiology.

"He's not here," Cuddy said as Susan walked in the door.

"I know," Susan replied. "I wasn't looking for him. How are you holding up?" Susan wasn't about to tell Cuddy she had just watched him walk out the doors of the hospital.

"I'm fine, I'm just waiting for some scans to be done," Cuddy replied.

Susan nodded, "Want some company?" and sat down. Susan and Cuddy chatted about nothing in particular until the radiology tech came to take Cuddy back to imaging and then Susan headed back to her desk.

The team still didn't have any testing that needed to be done on the patient. They were running their own procedures and treatments, so Susan chose not to bother them. She bided her time working on class material and writing the next exam. Finally it was time to leave; she tried calling Dr. House then Dr. Wilson to no avail. She wandered down to the conference room and found Chase sitting at the table studying a text with the patient file open in front of him. "If you guys don't need anything else from me, I'm headed out," she said.

Chase didn't look up from his reading material, "Later," he said. Susan left and went back to her apartment.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

The next day the team gathered around the conference room table and discussed the patient. "Where's House?" asked Chase. Foreman said he was probably with Cuddy as there had been some pretty bad news last night. Martha said she had just talked to Cuddy and she didn't know where he was either. Foreman left the room to talk to Wilson and then left fairly quickly not having made any progress toward finding House.

Susan was performing her daily QC routine when Foreman walked into the lab. "Have you seen House?" he asked.

"Not yet today," Susan answered. "Have you checked with Dr. Cuddy?"

"He's not with her," Foreman said.

"He left the hospital yesterday just before Dr. Cuddy got her scans, but I haven't seen him since," Susan acknowledged.

"I know, I found him at my place and then when he got the call, he just left," Foreman said.

"What call?" Susan asked.

"Cuddy's scans showed multiple lesions across her lungs," Foreman said.

"Which means what?" Susan asked.

"It means she probably has renal cell carcinoma and it has already metastasized," Foreman explained.

Susan put her things away and grabbed her purse, "I'll be back," she said.

House was sitting on his couch in his darkened apartment when he heard a key work the lock on his door. He didn't move when Susan came in and sat in front of him on his coffee table, "Hey," she said. "You okay?"

House didn't say anything and stared off into space. Susan reached out and grabbed his hands, "She's dead," he said as he looked up at Susan his eyes rimmed red and full of tears.

"No, she's not dead. She's in a room all alone at the hospital," Susan said. "She shouldn't be alone."

"Wilson's with her," House said.

"No, Wilson's not with her and he shouldn't be. You on the other hand should be," Susan said.

"I can't," House's voice caught as he said it.

"You can," Susan said as her own eyes started to tear. Susan always was susceptible to crying when others around her were upset, especially those she was close to. "She needs you to be with her Greg, you don't have to say anything – just be there. Hold her hand. Tell her you love her."

"I can't watch her die," House said with a few sobs escaping.

"Yes you can, it's not easy, but you can do it. Watching Jeff die was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I was there for him. Besides, Cuddy isn't on her deathbed right now, she's just waiting for surgery – and who knows you could be wrong; it may not even be cancer." Susan paused, Greg, as much as you don't want to lose her, if you do lose her and you don't spend time with her, it'll be much worse," Susan said. "Please. Gather your strength and go to her. She needs you."

House took his hands from Susan and wiped his eyes. "I need to go to the bathroom," he said and got up to head to the back of his apartment. When he came out, he took a deep shaky breath and with newfound determination said, "I'm going."

Susan nodded and followed him out the door. She followed him back to the hospital and watched as he hesitated at her door and then entered Cuddy's room. "Thank God," she said to herself and went back to the lab.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight:

The lab was quiet. The team was still trying to work out what was wrong with the patient without Dr. House's help and the patient was dying. Susan wasn't assigned any tasks at the moment so she went down to the clinic. "I need something to do, are there any specimens that need processing?" she asked the duty nurse.

"Actually yes, and the main lab is short staffed today, so please feel free to take the specimens," she said.

Susan took the specimens to her lab and started processing. There wasn't anything complicated here, a few urinalysis and basic chemistries on serum. It was enough to keep her occupied while she was waiting and it would help the techs in the main lab. She got along with most of them very well even if their manager was a complete jerk. She smiled as she remembered how Greg had come to her defense last month. It worked, he hadn't bothered her since and she had been to the main lab several times making sure that he noticed her presence each time.

The phone rang and Susan went over to answer it, "Dr. House's lab this is Susan." Susan listened to the caller, "That's great; I'd love to meet the team. I do need to tell you though, it's been a few years since I've played and recently I've had some eye surgery." The caller asked a few more questions that Susan answered, "Actually you'll have to go over the rules with me; I've never played co-ed before." Susan listened a little more and took down the information for where to meet and when and then hung up the phone. "Awesome," she said to herself.

"What's awesome?" House said as he walked in the lab.

"I just got a call from the coach of a co-ed team looking for another female player," Susan explained and then asked "How's Cuddy?"

"She's fine. It wasn't cancer," he said.

"Why aren't you with her?" Susan asked.

"She shooed me out. I got an idea about my patient and she sent me to cure him," House said.

"And did you?" Susan asked.

"Of course, did you expect less?" he retorted.

Susan smiled, "Of course not. So you're mojo is still intact."

"Yeah," he said and then sat down a little worried.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked.

"I screwed up," he said with a sigh. "I took Vicodin."

"When and why?" asked Susan.

"When you came to my apartment just before I went to see her," he admitted.

"While you were in the bathroom," Susan said thinking of that moment. "So, why?"

"I was scared and I couldn't face her," House said.

"So you decided to run away from the pain," Susan said. "Greg, Vicodin doesn't take away the pain; it just numbs you to it temporarily. Your problems are still there when the pills wear off."

"I know," he said. "It was stupid. It won't happen again, I can do better."

"Yes you can," said Susan. "I have faith in you."

House gave her one of his signature smirks, "Of course you do," he said as he got up and walked out of the lab.

Susan watched him leave. This was a setback. She knew he had the strength to stay off the pills, but she worried that his strength was misplaced. He'd been clean for nearly two years. Susan hadn't known him while he was on Vicodin, but she'd heard plenty of stories. He was happy with Cuddy, but Susan was afraid that Cuddy gave him the strength that helped keep him off of the drugs. Greg had told her how they got together and that it was her presence that night after his patient had died from the building collapse that had kept him from taking the drugs. This setback was evidence of the strength that Cuddy provided him. He was in emotional pain from losing her and he slipped. Susan hoped that Cuddy never called things off, or he was likely to spiral out of control. Susan determined never to tell anybody, especially Dr. Cuddy, what he'd admitted to her.

MDMDMDMD

On the way home from work Susan stopped by the local sporting goods store. She needed some glove conditioner and a new pair of batting gloves. She went over to the bats to look at them. She had a fast pitch bat at her apartment, but it would be too light for slow pitch. _Wow_, she thought to herself as she looked at the price tags. _Prices have really gone up_. Susan decided to forgo getting a new bat and just picked up the supplies she would need to recondition her glove. She went over to where the balls were at and picked up a 12 inch 0.44 core ball for slow pitch so she would get used to the feel when she heard a voice she recognized, "No Phillip, we're not getting that glove. You don't need a catcher's mitt, you're an outfielder."

"Hello David," Susan said.

"Susan! Hi. What brings you here?" he asked.

"I'm joining a co-ed team and needed to get some supplies. I need to re-condition my glove, it's been a few years since I've played," Susan explained.

"This is my son Phillip," David said introducing Susan.

Susan shook Phillip's hand, "Nice to meet you Phillip. Getting ready for the new season?" Phillip nodded. "What position do you play?" Susan asked.

"Center field, but I'd really like to play catcher," Phillip said.

"It doesn't hurt to learn both, it makes you a more versatile player," Susan said.

"Dad, can I go look at the bats?" Phillip asked. David nodded and Phillip went across the aisle.

"So, how's the eye?" David asked. "I see you have one corrective lens in your glasses, but the other lens doesn't look like it has any correction."

"Much better thank you and no it doesn't. Dr. Williams was able to correct my vision in my left eye when he repaired the retina. I'm really excited about it and in a month or so; we're going to correct the vision in my right eye. It'll be nice not to feel lopsided," Susan said. There was a little uncomfortable silence and then glancing over to where Phillip was to make sure he couldn't hear, Susan said, "I felt really bad about turning you down for last Saturday, but I had already promised Dr. Cuddy that I would spend the day with her and her sister."

David realized he had jumped to the wrong conclusion earlier, maybe she really was interested. "Well, we could re-schedule. Are you free this evening? We could go to dinner." he asked.

"What about Phillip?" Susan asked.

"I'm dropping him off at his grandparents in a few minutes. He and his grandpa are working on a project together for boy scouts. I have to pick him up at 9:00 so he's in bed at a decent hour, but there isn't much going on between now and then," he said.

Susan considered the request and then said, "Sure, where do you want to meet?"

They agreed on a place and time. Susan paid for her purchases and made her way to her apartment where she changed into some nice jeans and a comfortable, but modest top. She ran a brush through her hair and touched up her make-up, then headed out the door to meet David at the restaurant. She was excited; this was her first time out on a date since Jeff had died. Jeff hadn't been much into 'date nights' when they were married, but they did go out occasionally.

David waited anxiously at the restaurant; maybe she'd changed her mind. He tried not to look nervous, but he knew he wasn't succeeding. "Would you like to be seated now or continue to wait for the rest of your party?" the hostess asked.

"I'll wait, thank you," he said as Susan walked in the door. "Oh, there she is," he said when he saw her and waved her his direction.

Susan walked over, "I'm sorry I'm late, I wanted to get out of my work clothes."

"Not a problem," David said and ushered her to follow the hostess to their table.

"So, how long as Phillip played baseball?" Susan asked after the waiter had taken their drink order.

"This is his third year, he's doing really well in the outfield, but he really wants to learn how to play catcher," David said with a bit of reluctance.

"Does that bother you?" Susan asked.

"No, not really, but the coach doesn't have a lot of extra time to spend on individual instruction with the players and I don't know enough of the game to teach him what he needs to know," David said.

"I can teach him," Susan said.

"Baseball isn't like softball. The ball isn't just tossed slowly over the plate," David said.

"Spoken like someone who doesn't know much about softball," Susan retorted. "I've caught for pitchers that threw the ball over the plate at 68 mph."

"Really? That's pretty fast," David said.

"Granted, it's not as fast as a professional baseball pitcher would throw the ball, but it's certainly faster than anybody his age is going to pitch it," Susan said. "I can teach him the techniques and how to safely tag out the runner at home without getting cleated. The rules for fast pitch softball and baseball are very similar."

"Sounds good to me," David said. The rest of the evening went by quickly with the conversation wandering from baseball and kids to the earthquakes and tsunamis and soon it was time for David to go pick up his son. "I hope we can do this again soon," he said.

"I think that would be acceptable," Susan agreed smiling. The waiter brought out the bill and Susan reached in her purse to pay.

"No, let me get this," David said pulling out his wallet.

"Not this time David. This was an impromptu event; I should pay my own way," Susan said.

David looked at Susan intently. Seeing that she wasn't going to back down he said, "Ok, this time. But next time, it'll be a real date and I get to pay for both our meals."

"Agreed," Susan said laying down enough cash to cover her part of the meal plus a tip. David did the same and they walked out of the restaurant together. He walked Susan to her car and waited as she got in and closed the door behind her. Susan rolled down the window, "Thanks again for inviting me, I really enjoyed our visit."

David smiled, "Until next time," he said as he tipped his imaginary hat and went to his own car pleased that he had run into her at the sporting goods store. He was looking forward to their next date and hoped it would be soon.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine:

Susan was so excited about her impromptu date that she bypassed her own apartment and went straight to Greg's. She knocked on his door, but he didn't answer. He was home, his car was out front. She knocked again, "Greg?" No answer, odd.

Susan pulled her key to Greg's apartment out of her purse and worked the lock. The door swung open to a darkened room, this wasn't good. It was too early for him to be in bed. Susan's heart started beating faster, "Greg?" she called out again, starting to worry.

Susan found him sitting on the bathroom floor looking in a daze. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen and his pupils were dilated. A bottle of Vicodin was in his hand with the lid pried off. Susan sat down on the floor across from him not saying anything. "She dumped me," he said finally. "She figured out I'd taken the Vicodin and she dumped me," he said.

"What did she say?" Susan asked.

"That I chose myself over her and that I would always choose myself over her," he said. "She's right." House went silent again as he clutched the Vicodin bottle. "It hurts," he said trying to hold back the tears.

"I know," Susan said. She picked up the lid from the medicine bottle and took the bottle from his hand and put the lid back on it, "but you're stronger than this." She said putting the bottle on the floor next to her. She reached out and put her hand on his leg that was closest to her. "You are. I know you are," she said.

House sat in silence for a while as he pondered what Susan said. "I don't think I am," he finally replied as he struggled to get up off the floor. As he walked by Susan he reached down and grabbed the bottle she had set on the floor and walked out of the bathroom. Susan jumped up to her feet to follow him. He grabbed his jacket and his keys.

"Where are you going?" Susan asked.

"Away for a few days, don't worry about me – I'm fine," he said as he walked out the door. Susan was stunned. She sat down on the edge of his couch and stared at the door willing it to open and him to come back inside. After several hours it was apparent he wasn't coming back. Susan grabbed her purse and went home.

She picked up the phone, "Wilson," she said when he answered.

"I know," he said. "Cuddy called me."

"Why?" Susan asked.

"He wasn't there for her," Wilson explained.

"But he was, I saw him walk in her room and he was with her through the surgery and after she woke up," Susan said. "It took him a while, but he did show up."

"He wasn't really there Susan, he'd taken Vicodin," Wilson said.

"So he slipped, he was scared – he's an addict, they relapse once in a while. Can't she forgive him that?" Susan pleaded.

"I don't know, I'm going to talk to her tomorrow. Right now I have to find House," Wilson said.

Susan hung up the phone. She hoped that Wilson would be able to talk some sense into him and get him to come home. Susan didn't sleep the rest of the night. She tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position as she worried about Greg. Finally she got up and got ready for work. She walked in the hospital and went straight to Dr. Cuddy's office. She was inside sitting at her desk. Susan walked in her office and just stood there staring at her, not saying a word. Dr. Cuddy looked up at Susan, "I hope you realize what you've done," Susan said and without waiting for a reply, she left Cuddy's office and went to the lab.

Susan gathered her things and went to class. When she returned, Wilson was sitting in front of her desk. "Did you find him?" she asked.

Wilson nodded, "Yeah."

"And," Susan prompted. "Is he OK?"

"Not really. He's checked himself into a fancy hotel and is pampering himself," Wilson said.

"Well, that's not so bad is it?" Susan asked.

"It's the way he's pampering himself that's the problem. He's acting out and not dealing with the pain," Wilson said.

"Where is he?" Susan asked getting her purse out of her desk.

"Don't go Susan, you don't want to see him like this," Wilson said.

"If I don't go, then I'm not dealing with the situation either," said Susan. "He's my brother."

Wilson told Susan where House was staying and she headed to the hotel. She inquired at the front desk for his room number. She was escorted to his room by a large black man by the name of Carnell, "You're a little shorter than I anticipated and not dressed to kill nearly as well as the others, but I'm sure you'll satisfy Dr. House all the same," as they rode the elevator up to the floor House's room was located.

Susan was a bit confused by Carnell's comment, but chose not to say anything as he led her down the hallway. Carnell knocked on the door and House opened it dressed in a hotel robe, "Your next tasty treat," Carnell said as he gently pushed Susan inside the room.

Susan's jaw dropped open, "Your next tasty treat? What is that all about?" House looked down at the floor and Susan took a moment to look around the suite. There were empty bottles of alcohol on the floor, some musical instrument that Susan had never seen before, a bow and arrows and a large bowl of cash. "What are you doing?" Susan asked.

"I'm partying," House answered.

"What for?" Susan asked in disbelief.

"For fun," House said. "It's better than the alternative."

"Not really," Susan said.

"Nah – don't be like Wilson. You're my sister, you're supposed to be supportive," House said with more gleefulness than was warranted.

"And you're stoned," Susan said.

"Yep," he answered.

Susan went to the couch to sit down. House followed and sat down next to her, "What are you thinking?" Susan asked.

"I'm not – that's the point," said House.

"This isn't going to solve anything," she said

"No, but it'll make me feel better," he replied.

"Only in the short term," Susan said. "Greg, you can't stay here, you need to come home – you can stay at my place for a while if you want."

"No, I can't. Not while I'm like this," he said seriously.

"How long are you planning on being like this?" she asked.

"I don't know, maybe a long time," he replied.

Susan sat staring at him, "I don't get it. You were clean for two years," she said.

"And now I'm not. What's the big deal?" he asked.

"The big deal is that this isn't you…" Susan started.

"No, this is the _real_ me – you just haven't had the pleasure. Hi! I'm Greg House," as he held out his hand to shake Susan's.

Susan grabbed his hand in both of hers. "No, this isn't the real you. You're in pain and you're trying to hide." House tried to pull his hand out of hers, but Susan held on tighter. "I want you back. I know you have the strength to get through this if you'll just try," she said. "I'll help you."

"Nobody can help me, I've dug myself a big pit and I'm going to stay here where it's numb, where pain doesn't matter," he said.

Susan's tried not to let the tears that were forming in her eyes fall down her cheeks and she managed to hold all but one tear. "You don't want to stay in this hole forever Greg, but I can't make you leave. Susan released his hand and put both of her hands on his cheeks, "I love you and my love for you is unconditional. When you decide you want to climb out of this hole, I'll be there to help pull you out. But you have to make the decision to come out on your own. Susan pulled his head down and kissed his forehead, "I love you," she whispered as she got up from the couch and made her way out the door.

As she exited the room Carnell was waiting outside, "That was pretty quick; you're good."

Susan turned toward him and pushed him into the wall, "I'm his sister you idiot, and if you know what's good for you, you'll quit catering to him," she growled.

"Yes ma'am," he said and rushed to get off the floor.

Susan watched him scurry away and then went to find the hotel manager to lodge a complaint against Carnell. She knew it wasn't really his fault, he was just trying to get good tips by getting House whatever he wanted, but Susan felt this was over the top. After reaming the hotel manager for what she considered irresponsible management practices, she left.

House dressed and went down to the bar and sat at the counter. There were a bunch of college kids partying behind him. House turned to watch them for a while. He put his glass down and went back to his room with renewed vigor.

Susan walked out to her car and was in the parking lot when she heard a commotion. She looked toward the hotel and saw the crowd was pointing up. She looked up and saw House standing on the balcony of his room and watched in horror as he jumped. Susan registered Wilson's voice yelling above the crowd, "NOOOO!" and then she heard a splash. Greg had landed safely in the pool. The stress was suddenly too much for Susan having just watched what she thought was a suicide attempt. A wave of nausea overcame her and she vomited on the parking lot, "Hey lady, are you okay?" a voice asked. Susan wiped her mouth and nodded, "Yeah, thanks."

The kid moved off, "Did you just see that old man?" he was saying to one of his friends. "He cannonballed right off his balcony into the pool. He sure does know how to party for an old man." The kids laughed as they made their way away from Susan to their vehicles.

Susan got in her car and leaned back against the head rest. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them it was pitch black outside. The party out by the pool had apparently ended. She started her car and went back to her apartment. When she got home, she didn't even bother to undress. She lay down on her bed and fell into a fitful sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

The phone woke her up, "Hello?" she said sleepily.

"It's a little late to still be asleep," the voice said.

Susan glanced over at the clock, "Oh crap," she said. It was 8 o'clock.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, you're boss doesn't usually get in before 10 anyway," the voice continued. Finally it registered with Susan that it was David on the phone.

"I'm sorry David, I've had a couple of rough days," Susan said.

"I heard and I'm sorry. Do you think he'll pull out of it?" David asked.

"I don't know. I hope so," Susan said.

"Well, I was calling to see if you wanted to go out this weekend, but if you don't feel up to it I understand. House might need your help," David said.

Susan thought for a moment. She loved her brother and she wanted to help him out of this mess, but she couldn't help him until he was ready. She shouldn't keep her life on hold waiting for him to come to his senses before she moved on with her life. She would be there for him when he needed her. "No, I don't think he's going to want my help for a while. Just be understanding because when he does want my help, I'll be there for him," she said.

"Great," he said. "I'll pick you up Saturday at seven."

Susan gave him her address and hung up the phone. She got dressed and headed to work. She didn't know what work would be like while Greg was playing Charlie Sheen, but she was sure the team would help guide her through the confusion. After all, they had lived with him like that a lot longer than they had lived with him sober.

That day and the next few were actually pretty normal. Greg was still pretty much out of pocket, consulting with the team by phone as they needed direction. Susan performed her normal testing routines and when work was slow, went to the clinic and picked up a few more specimens to run. She missed her daily bantering with Greg and hoped that in the not too distant future things would get back to normal with him. Dr. Cuddy, the ultimate professional, was friendly with Susan, but Susan went out of her way not to interact with her any more than absolutely necessary. She knew that Greg had carved his own way into this mess, but Susan still blamed Cuddy for his downward spiral.

Finally Saturday evening came. The doorbell rang and Susan answered it. David was standing outside and Susan took his offered arm as they went down the steps to his car. He let her in the passenger side and closed the door behind her. "You look nice this evening," he said as he got in on the drivers side.

"Thank you," Susan said. "It's been a while since I've been on a date; I wasn't sure what to wear." Susan had chosen a black pant suit with a purple top under her blazer. She had accented the outfit with a simple set of stud earrings and a plain gold necklace. They drove to the restaurant and got out of the car. David walked her to the door and they went inside. After the hostess seated them with their menus, the waiter came to get their drink order. Susan opened the menu and frowned.

"What's wrong?" David asked.

"I can't read the menu very easily," Susan said. "My left eye has normal vision it in now, but since I'm in my mid-forties I can't see close up with it – I need reading glasses for it. My right eye is still severely nearsighted and I've gotten to the point I need to remove my glasses to read close up – especially in darkened rooms like this. Susan tried to close her right eye and moved the menu further away to get it in focus, when that didn't work, she removed her glasses and brought the menu closer to her face so she could read it with her right eye. "I know this looks ridiculous, but if you'll just bear with me for a moment." Susan reviewed the menu and made her selection. She put the menu down and started to put her glasses back on.

"No, leave them off if that's OK," David said.

Susan put her glasses back down on the table and shrugged.

"You're eyes are beautiful," he said.

"That was cheesy," Susan said smiling

"Maybe so, but that doesn't make it untrue," he said. "How much longer do you have to wait to have the right eye done?"

"Another 2-3 weeks I think," she said. It depends on what Dr. Williams says at my follow-up.

The waiter came bringing their drinks and they placed their order. Dinner was wonderful and the conversation pleasant and when they were finished, David paid for their meal. After the meal, Susan really wasn't ready to go back to her apartment, "Do you want to go for a walk or something?" she asked.

David answered, "Sure," and drove to the park closest to Susan's apartment. They walked along the trail in easy conversation. Susan felt very comfortable with David and it wasn't too long before she felt his hand slip in hers, "Is that okay?" he asked. Susan nodded and they continued to walk around the trail until they were back at his car. "You know, we're within walking distance to your apartment, would you like to just walk home?" he asked.

Susan agreed and they headed toward her apartment. At the door Susan turned to thank him for a lovely evening when he gently lifted the hand he had been holding during their walk. He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb as he looked down and into her eyes, "May I kiss you goodnight?"

Susan returned his look and unconsciously moistened her lips with her tongue as she nodded slightly. David bent down and lightly brushed his lips against hers and pulled away slightly as he felt Susan's breath catch. He grinned slightly and moved back in to deepen the kiss. Susan closed her eyes and opened her mouth slightly to allow him access. David dropped her hand and placed his hand against her cheek, his other hand gently grasping her waist. Susan's hands gently lay on his waist as David continued his soft exploration of her mouth. After a few moments he released her and stepped back. Susan opened her eyes as David gently stroked her cheek with his thumb, "Good night," he said softly and turned to go back to his car.

Susan watched him walk away then turned around to put the key in her door. She opened her door and walked inside. After she closed her door, she leaned back against it and closed her eyes still feeling his kiss on her lips. She opened her eyes, "Wow," she said to herself as she let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. She pushed herself off the door and walked down the hall to her bedroom to prepare for the night.

That night Susan lay staring up at the ceiling. The last few weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster for her. Actually, she thought, her life had been an emotional and in some cases a physical roller coaster since the day she walked into PPTH for her interview with Dr. Cuddy. She didn't regret her decision to come to New Jersey. She loved her brother so much and she missed him. She hoped he would come back to reality soon and now there was David. They'd kind of had a rough start trying to actually get together, but now that they were finally seeing each other, she hoped it would all go well. She couldn't wait until Greg got back to his normal self so she could share everything with him.

"Goodnight Greg – wherever you are," she said as she closed her eyes and fell asleep.


End file.
